Scratched bridge shoe

[jimmo]

No Mr. Peteski, just a modeler who likes his models to be believable.

[DKS]

No Mr. Peteski, just a modeler who likes his models to be believable.

I am the very same way; indeed, I'm somewhat fanatical about bridges in particular. I just did a quick online search, and I also flipped through a few hundred reference images I have on hand. In at least as many cases as not, the bridge shoe was located directly under the first rib at the end of a plate girder bridge having a narrow end panel. Although I did not conduct an exhaustive, scientific survey, I would still conclude that this is not an exception, but rather sound engineering, and thus a perfectly acceptable way of modeling such a bridge.

Here are some examples:



https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQNXsKHto-rJDhMf5QplguH5ch4EAL6SgOfGBanz-NSgMlH8MMk

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTBypF_Bm2z7T6NY_pmJEeHLsfDau9uIurZ_1SNMFK-1Rlez66W

And the alternative:

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/small/57440412.jpg

http://www.ghostdepot.com/rg/bridges/plate/silverton%20bridge%20plate%20girder%20abutment%201997%20tlhprn.jpg

A tossup:



And for those who don't feel like modeling (visible) bridge shoes, you don't have to--

[unittrain]

Bridges are my favorite structures, I remember wanting to model this one particular truss bridge my dad use to take me and my younger brother to, it was abandoned but it crossed the Conrail Cleveland Pittsburg line, Conrail removed it before I could take dimensions (darn double stacks  ) so I searched for photos ect and then went and measured the abutment and hence got the centers between trusses so since I worked in CAD (I was entry level in the engineering dept) I used some of my down time (which sometimes could be entire days to research and draw this bridge up, kinda like a bridge forensics  I laugh thinking about it now because the firm I worked for at the time used to call us new guys "CAD punks" well this Cad punk got paid to draw railroad bridges (where did those kinda work days go ) . But anyway after that bridge was removed I went and measured quite a few railroad structures like 5 bridges and a light tower an old B&O warehouse station ect and all are torn down now except I think 2 or 3 of the bridges but I got them on CAD! Now if I can only finish building the models I'm working on. But with that here is some more archived info this has Pennsy bridge clearances along with many other RR bridge specs. Again yes most is useless info for N scale purposes but if you skim it you find some useful modeling information, unless you want to calculate some N scale shear  http://books.google.com/books?id=9SI5AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=web+member+angle+to+horizontal+on+curved+chord+truss+bridges&source=bl&ots=RUspJ9oYhU&sig=LoJafB5__skYR6cl7Yt67uEcCnY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VP47UMuAPfH46QHYhYGYDQ&ved=0CFoQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q&f=false

[jimmo]

Way to solve that one David.

[Bsklarski]

I can say that the bridges on the railroad i work for have a fair number of them that the bridge rests on the abutments with no shoes at all. The bridge is just held there in place with pins.